Annotations for multiple versions of media content

• US 7,162,690 B2
• Filed: 01/17/2006
• Issued: 01/09/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Gupta, Anoop, Bargeron, David M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong; Stephen
• Assistant Examiner(s): QUELER, ADAM M
• Application Number:
  US11/334,037
• Publication Number:
  US 20060143560A1
• Time in Patent Office: 357 Days
• Field of Search: 715/512, 715/511, 715/513, 715/500.1
• US Class Current: 715/202
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4387 by the use of playlists
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/748 Hypervideo linking data to content, e.g. by linking an URL to a video object in the context of video distribution systems H04N21/858
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7867 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, title and artist information, manually generated time, location and usage information, user ratings
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/956 Hierarchical
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing

Abstract

Multiple different versions of the same multimedia content are available to a multimedia server. An annotation server maintains annotations corresponding to the multimedia content, each such annotation corresponding to each of the different versions of the multimedia content.

Claims

1. A computer system for providing annotations for media content, comprising:

a media content store containing different versions of the media content at different resolution levels, each version having a playback speed that indicates the speed at which that version of the media content is to be played back;

a component that receives annotations for the media content, each annotation having a start time;

a component that stores the annotations including their start times in association with the media content, wherein only one copy of an annotation is stored for the different versions of the media content;

a component that streams to a client one of the different versions of the media content at the playback speed for the version of the media content; and

a component that sends to the client an annotation when the different playback speed of the media content indicates that the media content associated with the start time of the annotation is being streamed to the client.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the start time of an annotation is relative to a version of the media content with a base playback speed.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein an annotation is sent to a client at a time that is the start time times the playback speed of the version being streamed divided by the base playback speed.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein when the playback speed is changed, sending an annotation when the changed playback speed indicates the content associated with the start time is being streamed to the client.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the media content is video and an annotation includes text to be displayed.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the media content is video and the annotation includes audio to be presented.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the media content is video and the different versions of the video are stored with different frames per second.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the media content is streamed from a server that is separate from a server that sends the annotations.

9. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for providing annotations for video, the video having different versions being stored at different frames per seconds, by a method comprising:

receiving annotations for the video, each annotation having a start time associated with a base version of the video;

storing the annotations including their start times in association with the video, wherein only one copy of an annotation is stored for the different versions of the video; and

sending to a client that is receiving a stream of a version of the video at a playback speed the annotations when the playback speed of the video indicates that portions of the video associated with the start times of the annotations are being streamed to the client.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 wherein the start time of an annotation is relative to a version of the video with a base playback speed.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein an annotation is sent to the client at a time that is the start time times the playback speed of the version being streamed divided by the base playback speed.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 wherein when the playback speed is changed, sending an annotation when the changed playback speed indicates the portion of the video associated with the start time is being streamed to the client.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 wherein an annotation includes text to be displayed.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 wherein the annotation includes audio to be presented.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 wherein the video is streamed from a server that is separate for a server that sends the annotations.